Chandra Release - September 13, 2011

Visual Description: CoRoT-2a

This graphic contains an image on the left and an artist’s illustration on the right of a nearby star. Named CoRoT-2a, the star has a planet in close orbit around it.  In the X-ray, optical and infrared composite image, the planet-hosting star is shown as a small, bright purple light in the center, with other dots in pale yellow and blue scattered around the image.   Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory are colored in purple, along with optical and infrared data from the Panchromatic Robotic Optical Monitoring and Polarimetry Telescopes and the Two Micron All Sky Survey in yellow and blue. CoRoT-2a is surrounded by a purple glow showing that it is an X-ray source. This star is pummeling its companion planet -- not visible in this image -- with a barrage of X-rays a hundred thousand times more intense than our planet receives from the Sun. Data from Chandra suggest that high-energy radiation from CoRoT-2a is evaporating about 5 million tons of matter from the nearby planet every second, giving insight into the difficult survival path for some planets. The artist's representation shows the material, in blue, being stripped off the planet.  The planet resembles Jupiter with brown and white striping and is shown close to the host star which is a bright orange and yellow Sun-like star.